But there are other obvious examples. In Cranmer’s prophetic speech, at the end of Henry VIII. when the poet makes him say of Queen Elizabeth, that,
“In her days ev’ry man shall eat with safety
Under his own vine what he plants.”
and of King James, that,
“He shall flourish,
And, like a mountain Cedar, reach his branches
To all the plains about him”—
It is easy to see that his Vine and Cedar are not of English growth, but transplanted from Judæa. I do not mention this as an impropriety in the poet, who, for the greater solemnity of his prediction, and even from a principle of decorum, makes his Arch-bishop fetch his imagery from Scripture. I only take notice of it as a certain argument that the imagery was not his own, that is, not suggested by his own observation of nature.
The case you see, in these instances, is the same as if an English landskip-painter should choose to decorate his Scene with an Italian sky. The Connoisseur would say, he had copied this particular from Titian, and not from Nature. I presume then to give it for a certain note of Imitation, when the properties of one clime are given to another.
II. You will draw the same conclusion whenever you find “The Genius of one people given to another.”
1. Plautus gives us the following true picture of the Greek manners:
—In hominum aetate multa eveniunt hujusmodi—
Irae interveniunt, redeunt rursum in gratiam,
Verùm irae siquae fortè eveniunt hujusmodi,
Inter eos rursum si reventum in gratiam est,
Bis tanto amici sunt inter se, quàm prius.
Amphyt. A. III. S. 2.
You are better acquainted with the modern Italian writers than I am; but if ever you find any of them transferring this placability of temper into an eulogy of his countrymen, conclude without hesitation, that the sentiment is taken.